The MoD has almost doubled the pay for its next FD in a bid to finally
appoint a new finance chief and end its 18-month search.

According to its 460-page annual report released this week, departing FD
Trevor Woolley was paid a maximum of £135,000, but candidates are being offered
a salary and bonus package of more than £250,000, making the role one of the
best rewarded jobs in central government.

HM Revenue & Customs’ FD Philip Moore earns £200,000 a year.

The MoD has been struggling to find a qualified FD since 2006. One public
sector expert described the job as a ‘thankless task’.

Ian Carruthers, CIPFA’s technical director and former head of the Treasury’s
whole of government accounts programme, said: ‘It’s complex as an organisation
and, in terms of its resource accounting, nuclear decommissioning and heritage
assets poses problems.’

The organisation owns heritage assets, including HMS Victory and the Enigma
codebreaking machine, all of which are not assigned a value on its books.